Habitable Planet Discovered
My usual news sites are erupting (here, here, and a slew of others) with news about a potentially habitable planet discovered orbiting a red dwarf some 20 light-years away in the constellation of Libra.
While I’ll readily agree that this is a potentially historic occasion, I can’t help but feel unsurprised at the discovery. I wasn’t particularly surprised at the discovery of the first planet orbiting another star either - despite its significance. Perhaps it’s just that I’m a jaded old curmudgeon who can’t be bothered to get excited about such fascinating news - but I think it’s more a factor of my having read Carl Sagan’s Cosmos years ago. In it, he presents a formula for the “Probability of Life” (a formula which I believe has a name, but which I have inconveniently forgotten), which posits a series of hypothetical probabilities for all sorts of variables that contribute to producing a world with sentient life forms.
Maybe I’m just an optimist, but I’ve always believed that planets, and more specifically habitable planets, existed in the universe, and that it was only a matter of time before we discovered them. The possibility that our solar system was the only source of planets in a universe so colossal just seemed too infinitesimal to be credible. Likewise, the probability of habitable planets - why should Earth be the only planet within the habitable zone of it’s star? I’m still a little skeptical of the idea that we will encounter sentient alien life forms within my lifetime, but I won’t even rule that out as impossible given the fullness of time.
April 25th, 2007 at 9:26 am
Silly boy… Your putting the cart before the horse. Who cares about Aliens!! We have new land to conquer! Wooo hooo Go space settlements and the great Upwards expansion!!
And I think Carl Sagen was over complicating life anyway. It’s spontaneous and actually frighteningly simple… of course you have to realize this is from the view point of an Environmental Microbiologist.
Also, As much as I do enjoy Sagen… And I do… You have to admit that he is a hippy who associates “Life†with a type of mysticism that I really think effects his math (at least in regards to life.) Besides Cosmos… I think that book is older then I am. Hehe… What we know about biology, the forming of life, and potential for life on other planets goes FAR beyond what we knew when he wrote that. And what we have discovered is that it is spontaneous and prevalent.
Of Course, I consider tiny little bacteria life… That being said if there is life 1 mile below the surface of the earth, that evolved spontaneously and completely independently from the rest of life on earth… as discovered by my favorite (one of the few I actually associated with) professor in College, Dr. Southam; then I don’t see why their isn’t life on other planets. Not to mention the Sulfur Reducing bacteria found at the bottom of the ocean in volcanic vents. Both of these discovered and fully understood after Sagen did his math. If I remember correctly one of the things he held as being significantly improbable was the formation of cellular membrane… which thanks to the Mars rock we know for a fact can easily happen on a foreign environment. (the Mars Rock didn’t have active bacteria, just lots of spontaneously formed semi permeable membranes.)
Anyway… That isn’t Terribly important. The Important thing is we found a new place to live… How neat would that be! Go forth find new alien cultures and conquer them…hehe kidding but you know what I mean.
April 25th, 2007 at 10:10 am
Well…
I know Sagen was talking about intelligent life.
But I think Intelligent is over rated. I am more worried about the Viruses and Bacteria myself… A Lion like alien can be shot, a sentient creature can be reasoned with and shot… The idea of a completely new and unique bug living in my lungs… AAAHH.
April 25th, 2007 at 11:33 am
Okay, so life is spontaneous and simple. Maybe I’ve missed something in my education, but I was under the impression that we hadn’t yet discovered the mechanism for abiogenesis. That is, how did the first batch of self-replicating proteins come about from a random soup of pseudo-organic material? The answer would prove most helpful in my ongoing Creationism vs Evolution debate (first mentioned here). Even better if you can point me in the direction of some research papers to read.
Also, to be fair to Sagan, his equation did differentiate between “life” (as you seem to define it: which is any form of self-replicating organism, including bacteria) and “intelligent life” - meaning those beings capable of human-like reasoning and thought. It was a primary factor in the whole equation - what percentage of life eventually achieves intelligence? And while it’s also possible that Sagan’s estimates were dramatically off, the whole point of the equation was to demonstrate that no matter how rare and unlikely life is, the probability that some life exists in the universe (which is unimaginably huge) is still pretty good. Were I trying to make a similar point, I would be using an extremely low estimate for every probability in the chain, to forestall any nay-sayers who might argue that I’m being over-generous in my calculations. (Though I will grant that Sagan is something of a “hippy” - if you mean someone who finds virtually everything about the universe to be semi-miraculous and wonderful)
I’m also skeptical at the fear of alien viruses and bacteria. Unless the aliens have a remarkably similar physiology to our own, it seems somewhat improbable that they would thrive on or within human tissue. For example, would the volcanic vent-dwelling sulfur-reducing bacteria find much reason to invade a human lung? If not, then why would a bacteria evolved in a completely different ecosystem do so?
Finally, the existence of another semi-habitable planet does indeed offer a relocation zone - but I think we’re still at least 50-100 years from extra-solar colonization, and that’s an extremely optimistic assessment. Before we start contemplating generation ships traveling the 20.4 light-years to Gliese 581, we’re going to need to invest in a lot of other technologies (space elevator, lunar colony, Mars colony, asteroid mining, interstellar propulsion technology, life support technology, etc.) So who’s putting the cart before the horse?
April 25th, 2007 at 12:53 pm
(Though I will grant that Sagan is something of a “hippy†- if you mean someone who finds virtually everything about the universe to be semi-miraculous and wonderful)
Yes that is Exactly what I mean by Hippy.
Of Course… There would have to be some Basic similarities… But I was taking a habitable planet to mean that it had enough O2 for our respiration… Besides the “disease” wouldn’t have to be a disease in its normal environment… it could be a bacteria happily living on the underside of a space rock… only to discover that our lung tissue is a wonderful place to live. I think that so long as there are basic similarities the idea of pathogenic bacteria isn’t that far fetched…
The sulfur reducer wouldn’t be happy in Human lung… No but It does do surprisingly well in a coffee pot…
Which lead to me replacing the coffee pot in the lab several times to no avail… the bacteria had found a niche and so long as it was exposed to coffee even passively it would infest ANY coffee holding or making device.
Um… The point of that is… you don’t KNOW where alien bacteria will be happiest. I promise Coffee pots and sulfur reducers didn’t evolve together. ïŠ
50-100 years is a drop in the bucket… I am just so excited that now we can offer a place to go, to in courage people to find a way to get there…
So
“Before we start contemplating generation ships traveling the 20.4 light-years to Gliese 581, we’re going to need to invest in a lot of other technologies (space elevator, lunar colony, Mars colony, asteroid mining, interstellar propulsion technology, life support technology, etc.â€
EXACTLY, That’s why I find it exciting.
Sure sure Putting the cart before the horse a bit… Frankly I am just happy to have a cart… the horse was getting confused with nothing to pull.
Maybe I’ve missed something in my education, but I was under the impression that we hadn’t yet discovered the mechanism for abiogenesis. That is, how did the first batch of self-replicating proteins come about from a random soup of pseudo-organic material?
AGH… Working on it… There is a paper out there and I have found a hundred or so papers based on the assumptions drawn from that and discoveries made from that but I am going to need more time to remember the dang NAME… Grr.. Perhaps this weekend?
April 25th, 2007 at 1:18 pm
http://www.jmcgowan.com/JigsawPreprint.pdf
I am Pretty Sure this discusess what I was going on about. It’s tied to the Prion Theory 1997…
See page 5 to cut to the chase… Um Haven’t Read it all yet… being at work and all but it looks right so far.
April 27th, 2007 at 6:49 am
“It was a primary factor in the whole equation - what percentage of life eventually achieves intelligence?”
And what is intelligent enough to be considered sentient? How do you measure the IQ of an alien creature? And how can you do it without being completely “humancentricâ€.
For instance; You could say, “Language, art, and poetry†What if the alien creature is telepathic… what would the point of language, art, and poetry be?
Societal development? Are Bees intelligent? Ants?
Building structures to live in? What if they don’t need them? Are Beavers Intelligent?
Anyway I am sure you get my point. I think we would have to completely reevaluate the way we approach all life forms encountered. To a certain extent… there DOES need to be a certain amount of structural complexity to indicate the capability for intelligence. But we have to also remember that a Brain isn’t the only possible organ for thought, the only human organ to be sure… but any mass of cells has the potential for communication. For instance in a tree if you prune a branch a cell in the root Responds, not right away, but cellular communication is happening, and the tree… in a VERY alien way is aware of it’s environment. Even more terrifying is that in aspens if one in a grove is trimmed All of the trees in the grove respond.
http://www.giantitp.com/comics/oots0150.html
hehe… no but really they do.